Africa-Press – South-Sudan. The youth organisations are calling on the national ministry of youth and sport to speed up the process of establishing the youth enterprise fund.
According to the peace agreement, the Revitalised Transitional Government of the National Unit (R-TGoNU) was supposed to establish a youth enterprise development fund to empower the youth.
Despite the submission of the policy to guide the fund by the youth union last year, the policy has never been presented to the council of ministers.
This prompted the organisations to call on the ministry to expedite the process to ensure the enterprise fund becomes effective.
In an interview with The City Review, Ayuel Machar, a youth representative in the National Constitution Amendment Committee (NCAC), said that after being submitted to the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the policy has been kept just under wraps with no progress.
“We knocked on doors to see where the youth policy document was, but we realised it was just kept under a briefcase; it was not taken to where it was supposed to be taken to let it pass,” Ayuel said.
However, Gai Mayen, chairperson of the specialised Committee on Youth and Sports in the National Assembly, said that the policy has not reached the parliament.
“It (the youth policy) is very far from coming to the house (parliament).” Gai
He directed the ministry to explain why the policy had not been implemented.
However, efforts to reach the minister of youth and sports for comment were not successful.
Mayen blamed the ministry for neglecting the youth fund, which he said was supposed to be implemented as part of the agreement, and urged them to speed up the process.
“There is nothing we can do other than call on them to wake up and expedite the process because this policy is very important,” he said.
Gola Boyoi Gola, Chairperson of the South Sudan National Youth Union, echoed the sentiments, saying the policy remains in the hands of the ministry of youth and sports.
“After we made the bill, we submitted it officially to the Ministry of Youth and Sport, which was in June 2022. Since then, we have never heard about it again, so we have done our part as a youth union,” Gola said.
The Transitional Government of National Unity was to establish a Youth Enterprise Development Fund with the goal of bringing more youth into economic growth and development.
The government was also to establish women’s enterprise development funds for the provision of subsidised credit for women’s enterprise development and capacity building.
The policy would enable the line ministries and the youth institutions to raise funds that could be provided to youth as part of economic empowerment.
Source: The City Review South Sudan
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